Friday, December 5, 2014

The Flash of Doom / Witches Tricks

Finally finishing out the May 1952 issue of Witches Tales #10 in its entirety (check the last 2 posts, as well as IT! in the archive), --it's another something of something story that may or may not shock you (hey Brian Barnes, any relation to this mad scientist?) Post also rounded out with a Harvey filler page of "witches tricks." More horrors on the way, stay tombed...

5 comments:

Man, a lot of missed opportunities with this story! There were some good panels, but I would have liked to have seen the victims of this creation getting fried graphically like in the classic Feldstein SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES #7 cover. This could have ended up a pre-code classic with a bunch of those. And story-wise he didn't really try and do anything with it except bottle it up. He should have gone on a crime spree, or taken over some banana republic -- until it turned on him. It was worth reading as one of those "could have beens" that gets my imagination going.

Karswell, how DARE you IMPUNE the good nature of my grandpa, Howard Barnes!!! A dedicated mad scientist, he was only trying to create a deadly monster without all the icky body parts! You're going to hear from my lawyer, who might or might not be an electrical monster!

Joking aside, I had the same thought Trevor had here -- it's a good start of a story, and a relatively static ending, but there's no middle. The writer was probably constrained by the page count, but he should have saved this one for a longer tale.

Knock out the last page and this could be inserted into any golden age super hero story as a bad guy origin. They really aren't that far apart, especially all the atomic age villains in the later 60s.

I love that coin magic trick. It's easy! Just make sure it lands directly on the edge and is spinning the whole time! Anybody manages to do that properly every time then they ARE a witch!

Those silly magic tricks at the end reminded me of a microshow titled Trick & Treat With the Magic Hands. There were 130 shorts, mostly under 4 minutes, filmed in 16mm in 1956 and sold in syndication, where they would appear between cartoons or something. The hands belonged to professional magician Leo Behnke but the narrator was a guy named George Mather. It was shown in many countries. In at least one, Argentina, magicians complained to the station because they were giving away how their tricks were done to all the children.

Your Horrible Host of Horrors

(aka Steve Banes) Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, DEVIL TALES, and MUMMIES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal, putrid collection-- except where noted.)

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